282 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



and sexual instincts, is a conspicuous and remarkable illustration of this 

 truth, and the so-called economic interpretation of human life and 

 society is an illustration from a different angle of the same thing. From 

 the natural history standpoint, on the other hand, there is no more ques- 

 tion about the reality and validity and fundamentality of man's higher 

 attributes than of his lower attributes, for it recognizes that the attri- 

 butes of natural objects, being the very fundamentals of knowledge itself, 

 never are, and seemingly never can be, reduced or explained by referring 

 them to the attributes of other bodies lower in the scale. Its office is not 

 to find something more fundamental and elemental behind attributes 

 either high or low, but to make sure of the validity and generality of all 

 attributes and then get them into a consistent scheme of classification. 

 It, consequently, in the very nature of its procedure, has to fix upon 

 standards of value and importance of attributes. It is in position to 

 accept — nay, more, from the very nature of its undertaking, it must 

 accept men like all other beings and objects in the full range of their 

 natures. 



But while I am emphasizing the belief that the natural history way 

 of viewing the world is capable of meeting the deepest needs of man's 

 nature, while the materialistic can not possibly do this, I would wish to 

 make it quite clear that this is not my main motive, as a man of science, 

 in defending the natural history standpoint. Primarily, my position is, 

 that the natural history standpoint is the only one that is in accord 

 with both the historic development of natural knowledge and the funda- 

 mental nature of knowledge itself, as well as with the processes by which 

 it is acquired. And I should like to establish the claim that when the 

 scientific interpretation of nature is genuinely sound, as judged by its 

 own undertakings and best interests, it will encourage in every way the 

 fullest and freest development and expression and satisfaction of the 

 whole gamut of man's nature consistent with the healthful coordination 

 of all the independent parts thereof; that is, consistent with the whole 

 of .life, individual and social. 



And this brings me to the focus of the evening's enterprise: The 

 chance and the duty of natural history to beneficently influence the atti- 

 tude of people generally toward the world — toward nature, man and 

 society. You will not, I trust, have understood me to mean natural 

 history in any restrictive sense. As I am thinking of it, it includes 

 every aspect of knowledge that aims to find out in the most compre- 

 hensive and accurate way possible, the make-up of the world outside our 

 own heads. The distinctive thing about it is not so much how far its 

 knowledge shall reach, as is the character of what that knowledge shall 

 be. The goal of its striving is not to understand the constitution of the 

 matter of which the world is composed, but of the world itself. Physical 

 geography, geology, mineralogy, oceanography and astronomy are con- 



